That means BB’s “Total Access” program is taking a major bite out of Netflix, likely due to Netflix’s ‘creative rerouting’ of titles that are actually available from a person’s closest distribution point–but they decide to say only the farthest one away–is finally catching up to Netflix. If Netflix wants to compete, then it will have to start being honest with its customers and having far more transparency in the distribution process, so its customers are happy. If it doesn’t do it, I can see BB taking the #1 spot away from Netflix–if BB maintains the service and continues to improve non-site mailed title distribution (their mail distribution is still behind Netflix in turnaround). This ‘suit’ is a classic case of suing when a company is getting a major bite taken out of it by a competitor, not becuase the competitor is actually breaking the law (just like the lawyer correctly points out in the article).

That means BB’s “Total Access” program is taking a major bite out of Netflix, likely due to Netflix’s ‘creative rerouting’ of titles that are actually available from a person’s closest distribution point–but they decide to say only the farthest one away–is finally catching up to Netflix. If Netflix wants to compete, then it will have to start being honest with its customers and having far more transparency in the distribution process, so its customers are happy. If it doesn’t do it, I can see BB taking the #1 spot away from Netflix–if BB maintains the service and continues to improve non-site mailed title distribution (their mail distribution is still behind Netflix in turnaround). This ‘suit’ is a classic case of suing when a company is getting a major bite taken out of it by a competitor, not becuase the competitor is actually breaking the law (just like the lawyer correctly points out in the article).

Somewhere, capitalism got ‘lost’ when lawsuits became the order of the day to ‘limiting or stopping’ a competitor’s progress–instead of the company in trouble doing the better job it should have started doing in the first place.

I agree. Netflix got ahead, but then started lying to its customers about where the titles where coming from and where they were available from. I would deliberately order low-priority titles just to prove the ‘throttling,’ since the complaints were normally dealing mostly with higher-demand new releases. I would be allowed about 2 months of ‘unlimited’ rentals, then I would start getting ‘throttled back’ to 12-15–all on titles I knew that were readily available in my local area (at competing Blockbusters no less).

Notice how Netflix has really been spending a lot on advertising in the last 6 months? This is the same thing Ford and Firestone did after the faulty tire design by Firestone and all the crashes from blowouts or ‘faulty tire design’ on Fords. They spent incredible amounts of money on airtime with both companies for easily 1 year or so nonstop. I know it didn’t help Ford, and as for Firestone, I don’t have any information on if Firestone lost serious revenues. However, it seems the pattern of the day that once a successful business gets lazy, then starts trying to put the screws to the customer in some way that that’s when once they are in serious trouble that they start a major advertising campaign–like Netflix. Only problem is that if Netflix were to bite the dust (because it refused to make good changes and refused to become transparent on title availability), then with the way ‘business practices’ are today, that would leave BB as the king of the hill, then I suspect BB would stop competing like it is now against Netflix, since it would then have no competition. I’d rather see Netflix make the requisite changes and drop the throttling (basically lying), because only by having a serious competitor will both Netflix and BB find ways to stay competitive.

Based solely on movies mailed, Netflix still has a slight edge over BB. BB has the obvious edge where both mailed movies and someone has quick access to a local BB for return/exchange. I do not live close to a BB, so I have to rely on mail distribution only (and I suspect others would as well, if they are too far away from a BB, that also live in a city where the traffic is so bad that they are better off staying at home and waiting on the mail). While Netflix lies about when they ‘throttle you down,’ I’ve not seen specifically where they lie in their ads. Could you point out an area you see they lie in during one of their TV ads?

Yeah, it sure wouldn’t be an added benefit having to drive any distance, with the price of gasoline in different places. Some posters have said they live only blocks away from a Blockbuster, so those are the ones would benefit most from BB’s “Total Access” program. If it’s nice weather, one can walk or ride a bike to a close store like that.